One Product, 20,000 Stores, 727 Million Plastics Diverted: The Repurpose Story
A Shopify Masters interview with Lauren Gropper, founder of Repurpose, who left film and TV set sustainability work to build plant-based tableware after seeing a sea of single-use plastic at lunch. She explains the three-part test of performance, sustainability and affordability, why price parity matters, how the category changed, how Repurpose now competes on design when compostable is table stakes, and why they were sales first. Sponsor: Shopify, which presents the show and links a free trial in the description. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this note is based on the opening, the product-development section, a middle section on the category and design, the closing on being sales first, and the description, and does not cover every part of the roughly 38 minute conversation. All business claims and figures, including the 20,000 stores and 727 million pieces of plastic diverted, are the speakers' own and are not independently checked.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
A Shopify Masters interview with Lauren Gropper, founder of Repurpose, who left film and TV set sustainability work to build plant-based tableware after seeing a sea of single-use plastic at lunch. She explains the three-part test of performance, sustainability and affordability, why price parity matters, how the category changed, how Repurpose now competes on design when compostable is table stakes, and why they were sales first. Sponsor: Shopify, which presents the show and links a free trial in the description. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this note is based on the opening, the product-development section, a middle section on the category and design, the closing on being sales first, and the description, and does not cover every part of the roughly 38 minute conversation. All business claims and figures, including the 20,000 stores and 727 million pieces of plastic diverted, are the speakers' own and are not independently checked.